A typical Electronic Article Surveillance (“EAS”) system in a retail setting may comprise a monitoring system and one or more security tags or labels attached to articles to be protected from unauthorized removal. The monitoring system establishes a surveillance zone (also referred to as an interrogation zone), usually at an access point for the controlled area. Articles which are authorized for removal from the area can be deactivated or removed so as not be detectable by the monitoring system. If the monitored item enters the surveillance zone with an active security tag, an alarm may be triggered to indicate possible unauthorized removal of the item.
As is known in the art, security tags (also referred to as labels) for EAS systems can be constructed in any number of configurations. The desired configuration of the tag or label is often dictated by the nature of the article to be protected. For example, pre-packaged goods which are subject to retail theft, such as CDs, DVDs, small electronic devices, etc., may contain an EAS label disposed within the packaging in such a way that it is hidden from the consumer at least during the pre-purchase period.
An EAS label may be enclosed in a rigid housing which can be secured to the monitored item, such as hard tags containing EAS labels which are commonly attached to clothing in retail stores. The rigid housing typically includes a pin which is inserted through the fabric and secured in place on the opposite side. The housing cannot be removed from the clothing without destroying the housing except by using an EAS deactivator/remover.
However, by inserting the pin through the fabric, the item to be protected incurs some damage from the pin. High-end retailers and customers dislike having expensive merchandise, such as, for example, leather goods, suffer some damage in order to prevent theft. Shoes are especially difficult to protect using a device having a pin as the material the shoe is constructed from often suffers permanent damage from the pin.
Additionally, shoes present other difficulties for EAS tags having a pin because the shoe material may simply be too rigid to insert the pin. Many retailers currently attempt to secure their merchandise using these hard tags in combination with pins, lanyards or both through a lace eyelet or in the tongue area. This practice is fine for a few shoe types, but the tag/pin/lanyard interferes with the fitting and lacing process of the merchandise. Thus, many shoes, boots and expensive or strapped women's shoes cannot be tagged at all. For items such as boots, pin may be too short to extend through the thickness of the boot material, thereby preventing the pin from being secured.
Therefore, what is needed is a pinless EAS security device that is attachable to items of merchandise without penetrating through or damaging the item.